Tuesday, August 15, 2006

So there I was, as You know, or might assume, minding my own business.
I was out in the hot Middling City sun and I'd forgotten to slather the 1.5K SPF lotion all about so I was silently being microwaved as I shot architectural images for the traipsingly wondrous Secrets of Allentown - highly recommended for its snoop-enabling possibilities as one wends along as a self-guidee poking one's curiosity into converted mansions, small former cottages, luxe middle class establishments on veritable Free Pass Day.
On the list was 388 Franklin Street and it was completely in hiding. I circled and then circled some more about the one-ways and finally just freakin' parked. I saw a woman in a yard on the corner of Edward and Franklin and asked if the place was 388. It was. And it's a much-viewed mystery building, a brick building with a somewhat-wobbly rainbow painted on two sides. It seems to be a daycare center but upon introducing myself to the lady, who is a nun, I was informed the building is not a daycare center but a pre-K situation. And a convent. I got a tour, the same that the public will have and amongst the architectural features were artifacts of both ilks. The guide, Brazilian-born Sister Victoria, asked, when I asked about her religious order, if I'd like to join the order, The Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, to be all about exactitude.
I was stupefied.
Thanks, I said, but no. Then I suggested that she have brochures handy for the tourists - about joining up with the four conventioneers, as well as about the charming, warm school for mainly immigrant children from 3-7.
Yours Truly was not a taker, in this religious matter.
Time to wend toward freelance gigs of a more secular nature.

Love of Nature, and Order.

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